Permission has been given to Anna Hazare and his associates for his fast at Ramlila Maidan till 2nd September and it is conditional, Home Secretary R K Singh said on Thursday.
He said the government was not involved in any discussion with Team Anna and it was the Delhi Police which held the talks and resolved the issue amicably.
"The Delhi Police discussed with Team Anna and, thereafter, they have come to a decision. What the Delhi Police conveyed to the Ministry of Home Affairs is that the permission was given till September two on the usual sort of conditions," he told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.
Singh said it was not proper to say the agreement was a victory for one side and defeat for the other "but the basic issue was that permission for certain ground and certain period was given with some sort of conditions. If someone is saying that this is a victory or something, this is not the right way to say. This is not a question of victory or defeat," he said.The Home Secretary said conditions of a particular ground mandated a certain size of crowd as well as of available parking.
"An agreement has been reached on another ground and the size of that ground is much larger. So the size of the crowd does not matter," the Home Secretary said, referring to Ramlila Maidan.
He said, "Conditions are there. Some conditions remain same. For example, the condition of using loud speakers remains the same as the condition imposed for the earlier ground. The condition that the doctors will examine remains the same. Doctors will examine. The organisers and the Delhi Police have agreed to these conditions."
Singh said Team Anna has to make its own arrangements on basic issues and whenever the ground would be ready, they would go there.
"The issue has been resolved by the Delhi Police through negotiation and through complete understanding. It was good," he said.
Meanwhile, team Anna Hazare has indicated that it may not insist on the judiciary being brought under the ambit of the Lokpal if the govt brings out a good Judicial Accountability Bill.
"PM has to be within the ambit of the Lokpal. As far as the judiciary is concerned, if a good Judicial Accountability bill can be brought along with the Jan Lokpal Bill then we are open to it," he told reporters outside Tihar jail on Thursday.
Hazare to go to Ramlila Maidan on Friday
Anna Hazare will launch his protest at Ramlila Maidan on Friday as the venue is yet to get readied for the fast and will stay for one more night in Tihar Jail, activist Arvind Kejriwal said.
"I spoke to Annaji. In view of the conditions at Ramlila Maidan, Annaji will reach Ramlila Maidan tomorrow," Kejriwal said.
Another Hazare associate Kiran Bedi said the Gandhian will not move out of Tihar Jail till he embarks on his journey to Ramlila Maidan to launch the protest.
Hazare reached an agreement with Delhi Police early Thursday morning on the protest venue and the conditions.
As soon as Hazare announced that he would move to Ramlila, MCD which owns the ground deployed around 100 workers to clean the facility but the work was so massive that they could not finish it by the afternoon as desired by the Gandhian's team.
Earlier, Bedi had said that Hazare will go to the Maidan after 3 pm on Friday.
Hazare was lodged in Tihar Jail on Tuesday evening after he was detained for going ahead with his plans to defy prohibitory orders in J P Park in New Delhi.
However, he was released later but he refused to come out of the prison demanding that there should not be any restrictions on his protest.
After hard bargaining for two days, Hazare and Delhi Police reached an agreement early Thursday morning under which Delhi Police removed all restrictions and allowed him to carry out his hunger strike for 15 days in the spacious Ramlila Maidan.
The breakthrough came in the wee hours of the day after top aides of Hazare met Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta.
No comments:
Post a Comment